Internship: Optical Design & Testing Engineer of Bio-Sensor

Internship opportunity at Praxa Sense

We are Praxa Sense, a young medtech start-up working on the development of an innovative, data-driven device that enables patients to monitor their vital signs at home. We enable data collection over the long term, helping medical professionals diagnose diseases earlier. Our goal is to improve medical processes by making products that combine hardware, software and user experience. We are also developing our own sensor in-house which could optimize some of the existing hardware out there.

For this project, we are looking for an intern who likes a technical challenge.

We are looking for a student who is interested in performing optical experiments and investigations related to the development of our new non-invasive sensor. The sensor functions comparably to a photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor, and is configured to measure cardiac flow in a non-invasive manner.

The student will be tasked with designing different optical configurations of I/O components required by the novel sensor to investigate several sensor parameters. This will include writing measurement plans and constantly updating and redesigning prototypes. A certain autonomy is required during the internship; the student should be able to interpret obtained results and use these conclusions to make new plans and prototypes.

The I/O components are ready to use and designed to allow easy implementation into different configurations. Prototypes will either be fabricated in a lab environment using specialized optical equipment or fabricated using a 3D printer for wearable applications. Therefore, an affinity with optical instrumentation and modeling software is considered a strong plus.

Background

In PPG technology, an LED and a photodiode are used to measure changes in blood volume. These volume changes are the direct result of the heartbeat and the saturation level of the patient. Through these changes, the patient’s heart rate can be measured. In our newly designed sensor, we optimize this process by replacing some of the hardware, enabling the removal of motion artifacts that usually plague PPG measurements and improving the accuracy of heart-rate measurements. The approach is both novel and supported by research from TU Delft.

What we offer

• A young and professional yet fun team
• Lots of freedom to implement your ideas
• Opportunity to be hired after the internship or after your study

What we ask

• Bachelor/Master student in Physics and Mechanical Engineering or a comparable field
• An interest in biophysics and healthcare is recommended
• Proactive team player with good communication skills
• Experience with Python and/or Linux is a plus